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I have lots of crooked knives. I use an assortment of 8" pieces of metal tubing as mandrels. I wrap the fine silicon carbide sand paper pieces around those and secure them with strips of black electrical tape at each end. Mandrels: dull 7/32" chainsaw file, 1/4". 1/2" and 3/4" wooden dowels...

Nope. News to me. We have some expansive stands of big aspen in river bottom flats. The lower branches tend to "self prune" the thought being they are not shade tolerant. I never ever hunt or explore those places on windy days. You can hear the dead branches crashing down. The rest of our...

With the passing of my partner, I've inherited a huge collection of audio cassettes, CD's and an indeterminate number of video VCR tapes. Shelf after shelf of recording and play back equipment. She had abandoned many text books out here just as soon as she saw me building book cases. Wall...

Is one of these iPhones a crutch for a weak classroom education? Maybe a surrogate for a system that can't include every one? I have to admire the diversity of educational applications (those are "apps", right?) My kids are very successful 40-somethings. I asked them if I should get a phone...

Agriculture Canada claims that 50% of Canadian bee hives succumbed in this winter past. So the market for locally produced honey is very strong and inventory is very low. I won't buy in a grocery store what I can buy locally.

I got into a book store that had a dozen different knot books on the shelf. Specifically, I was looking for information to do rope splicing, what had been a fish boat chore some 50 years ago. I could have picked some other specific such as lashing. With no doubt in my mind, the best of the...

Probably the only preserve that I've made recently would be lime marmalade. Some times in the autumn, our little grocery store gets a load of very nice, big,unblemished limes. Two dozen will keep me busy, putzing around, for a couple of days. I have had people pick my cherries and grapes, I'm...

I had a wool jacket like that with widely spaced buttons down the front. Loved the jacket. So one day, I clipped off the buttons and sewed a strip of Velcro down the front for a closure. Sure fixed the draft issue in a hurry.

Carhartt "Chore Coat". Sure it gets plenty cold here with snow like sugar, just brush it off, it won't be melting anytime soon. Layers. Flannel & wool clothing underneath. The big thing here is the wind. Somehow you need to get out of the wind. Carhartt canvas is pretty good for that...

Thank you. That all looked to be an outstanding adventure for whole families.

I'm quite fond of Ichiban Chicken noodle soup. Cooked i 3 minutes. Nothing left over. Badly in need of more broth additive and lots of fine dice green onion. Any of these "add boiling water" foods and I'm always thinking of the fuel cost if no campfire is allowed. I like to make my own egg...

Welcome. Be bold. Ask your questions. Autumn and winter were my outdoor seasons. Based on polls in Uni lectures, if one student asks a question, there's every chance that 1/2 the class would like to know the answer. As far as kit is concerned and stoves in particular, you will not find a...

"Forever Chemicals" come by that name honestly. It is not possible, yet, to filter those from any water source. All surface waters, rain and snow included, are contaminated.

My uncle raised some white turkeys. Getting on towards autumn, Thanksgiving and Christmas with a big family, these were 15-20kg birds. Amazing speed to eat a running mouse. The farm cats never had a chance.

The presence of "forever chemicals" in all wild surface waters makes them toxic when consumed over time. Basically made of chains of carbon-fluorine atom bondings, the strongest bonds in organic chemistry. They can be destroyed with extreme heat and boiling won't do anything. The chemical has...

Several different food prep peeling tools, a corn cob stripper and (what I hope to be) a large chef knife. If I can't see the knife's place beside my little cleavers, I'll make a gift out of it.

I consider baked beans to be an ingredient badly in need of help. Fine dice bacon, fine dice fried onion, garlic powder, maybe soy sauce and certainly Worcestershire or Tabasco Jalapeno. There's nothing that you can do to convince me that refried Tex/Mex beans are good to eat.

I've been drying Roma tomato halves @ 55C for 24 hours with consistent success. I pack jars and flood them with olive oil. How well do you think that this compares with canning?

Here, there's a huge market for well-worn and somewhat ripped old blue jeans. All the damage but no work at all to get there. 1.5 legs makes a nice roll for some 15 wood carving gouges.

I'm an omnivore with a particular liking for fish and shellfish. There are a few things that really make me wonder about my fellow humans: Kale. What the hell is that? Cauliflower. Ditto Raw seafood. If it's bait, cook it first, thanks. On the plus side, I've learned how to make very good...